Anne Alice Le Guinio v Q-COMP

Date of decision: 10 December 2009, I.M. Springer

Mr J Dwyer of Counsel, instructed by Gouldson Legal for the appellant

Mr S Gray of Counsel, directly instructed by Q-COMP

Key words – Teacher - 50 – Injury Type: psychological – Appeal Outcome: appeal dismissed - Significant sections considered: –

S131 - an application for compensation is valid and enforceable only if the application is lodged by the claimant within 6 months after the entitlement to compensation arises

Head Note

Ms Le Guinio is employed as a language teacher. In September 2006, she lodged an application for compensation with WorkCover Queensland (“the Insurer”) for an injury described as ‘anxiety/depression’ she alleged occurred during her employment. She lodged a further application in October 2007 for another psychological injury. The Insurer rejected the second application as being out of time. Ms Le Guinio filed an application for review with Q-COMP. The review decision confirmed the Insurer decision to reject her claim for compensation.

Ms Le Guinio lodged a notice of appeal with the Brisbane Magistrates Court. She alleged that the application was not out of time because there had been no assessment of her condition by a doctor.

His Honour stated that there was no evidence that a medical certificate was lodged with the application. Further that medical consultation notes taken around the time of her second application refer to ‘a continuation of the original Workcover certificate and condition’. The failure to include a medical certificate with her application meant that she had not established that she had complied with the conditions associated with lodgement of her application.

‘Section 131(1) of the Act contemplates that an entitlement to compensation will pre-date an application, as the application is “valid and enforceable only if the application is lodged by the claimant within 6 months after the entitlement to compensation arises”. Further the requirement for a doctor to provide a workers’ compensation certificate (s132) confirms the need for the entitlement to compensation to have already crystallised. Here the application the subject of the rejection decisions by WorkCover and Q-COMP was lodged before there was any assessment of the purported second injury…Given the lodgement of the application for workers’ compensation before any assessment, I take the view that the application is invalid’.

The appeal was dismissed.